Saturday, February 28, 2009

Ezra seems to be doing better today. He has been smiling and had been a lot more active then he was yesterday. The breathing treatments seem to really be helping with his breathing, so that's great! We just keep praying that each day he will get a little better.

Friday, February 27, 2009

So like I said, part of the reason for this blog is to keep everyone updated on Ezra. He's had quite a journey. He was born very healthy and showed no signs of trouble at first.

Then at five days old, he was hospitalized for jaundice, which is having high levels of billirubin in the blood. After being under the lights for almost 24 hours, Ezra was released and was thought to be all better. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the jaundice did not leave his body as quickly as expected. Normally, after treatment, billirubin levels return to normal within two weeks. Well it wasn't until after two months and countless blood draws that Ezra's billirubin levels returned to the normal level. We are not sure exactly why his levels took so long to go down. His doctor says that sometimes it just takes longer for some babies than for others.

At about two weeks old, we started to notice that Ezra spit up A LOT. I don't mean a little dribble down his chin after a feeding, but he would spit up handfuls of his feedings. We estimate 1-2 oz at a time. I first asked one of the doctors, how much spit up is too much. He said, that it is not the amount of spit-up that matters, but whether or not the baby gains weight. Well, since he had gained back his birth weight and more already, we did not worry at that point.

Then came his one month appointment. He was weighed and we found out that he had only gained 2 oz. in 12 days (babies at this age are supposed to gain 1 oz each day). The doctor determined that Ezra has reflux. We tried supplementing with formula that has rice in it, which usually helps stop spitting up, since it is heavier. That did not work. We have tried the medications, Zantac and Prevacid, neither of which worked. We tried pumping my breast milk and added formula or rice to it. That did not work. He had an ultrasound of his pylorus, which is the valve at the bottom of the stomach. His pylorus is normal. So we are not sure what is causing his spitting up. We are going to see a pediatric GI specialist on Tuesday, so hopefully we'll get some answers. He is quite skinny and needs to gain some weight. For comparison, Matthias weighed 9 lbs 0 oz at birth and 13 lbs 3 oz at his two month appointment and Ezra weighed 9 lbs 6 oz. at birth and 11 lbs 3.5 oz. at his two month appointment.

Now for the current hump in the road. Last weekend, Ezra started coming down with a cold. That was not suprising, since Matthias and Calvin had both had colds and as much as you try to prevent the passing of germs, it is nearly impossible when one of the people with a cold is a toddler who wants to touch everyone and sneezes and coughs without covering his mouth. Well Sunday night was pretty miserable for all. I had a bad stomach flu and Ezra was coughing so much he barely slept. We brought him to the doctor and was diagnosed with croup. He also weighed 9 lb 9.5 oz, which was only half an oz more than the week before. Ezra was given a steroid to help the croup. That was about all we could do for him, since croup is a virus and there is not real treatment. Dr. Iyer asked me to call with an update on Thursday.

Thursday came and Ezra was worse, not better. He was not breathing normally, so I called Dr. Iyer's office and the nurses told me to bring him in. I brought him in and Dr. Iyer was also concerned about his breathing and that his cough had gotten worse. She decided right away to do a breathing treatment. She said he most likely has RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) and Bronchiolitis. He is on an antibiotic and is receiving nebulizer breathing treaments 3-5 times a day. If he gets any worse, he is going to have to be hospitlized. So now we are just praying that he gets better, not worse. Also when they weighed him today, he was only 9 lbs 6 oz, which means he lost 3.5 oz since Monday. This is big for him, since it takes an average of two weeks for him to gain that kind of weight. Only good thing about the weight loss is that they moved his specialist appointment up from March 13 to March 3.

So now you are up-to-date with Ezra. I'll let you know if anything changes. Otherwise, we just ask for your prayers.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

So I decided it was about time to start a blog. The main reason I finally got around to starting it, is that to be able to update people on how Ezra is doing. But this blog is not about Ezra alone, but about our family. Ezra is just going to be a featured player for a while, since he is having some health issues. Anyways, let's start from the beginning of our family.

Calvin and I met at Dordt college in the fall of 2003. Calvin is from Lacombe, Alberta and I am from Sheboygan, WI. We started dating about three weeks into freshman year and have been together ever since. We were married on August 13, 2005. This is from our third anniversary.

Right after our first anniversary, we got the surprise of our lives. I was pregnant. So on May 2, 2007, eleven days past his due date and nine days before our college graduation, Matthias James was born. He weighed 9 lbs and was 22 inches long. Now Matthias is a very active toddler. He loves puzzles and duplos. In this pictures, he is trying out his new potty. We aren't really starting potty training yet, but wanted to give him a chance to try.

Not quite 19 months after Matthias was born, we welcomed Ezra Jacob into the world. He was born on November 29, 2008, only three days after his due date. He weighed 9 lbs 6 oz and was 21.75 inches long. He is now almost three months old, but has already been through a lot, which I'll talk about in my next post.

So that's a brief introduction to our family. I hope that this blog will help you all stay updated on our lives.